Trump Makes Move to Open 90% of US Coastal Waters to Oil Drilling

The Trump Administration has moved to open 90% of US waters to oil drilling, here's why that's so scary.

President Trump has launched the most sweeping industrial assault in history on our oceans, marine life, coasts and all they support, proposing to expose nearly all U.S. waters to the risk of another BP oil spill–style disaster.

In a move that would put every American coastal community at risk, Trump proposed today to hand over vast reaches of waters currently protected from drilling—in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans—to the oil and gas industry.

If Trump gets his way, iconic fishing grounds like George’s Bank, treasured recreational waters like the Florida Straits, and critical marine-breeding areas like those off the California coast would be exposed to the dangers of blowouts, explosions, catastrophic spills, seismic blasting, and other perils that come with these inherently hazardous industrial operations at sea. We could see drill rigs going up in federal waters off our coasts from Maine to Florida, from California to Alaska, and everywhere in between.

Today’s proposal comes on the heels of two Trump moves that needlessly increase those dangers.